


Tech Support

by Sholio



Category: The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Bonding, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 03:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17779616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: David is the Punisher's tech support. That's okay. It's fine.





	Tech Support

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Edonohana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edonohana/gifts).



The text came in on David's phone while he was watching Netflix with his arm around Sarah. It came from an unknown number, and it just said, "You busy?"

Okay, there were a lot of things this could be, and it was possible that his first, instinctive guess wasn't the right one. David held the phone out to the side and, with one eye on the TV, one-thumb-typed a wary response. "Not really."

"Can I ask you a question," said the answering text from the person who was almost certainly Frank Castle.

"Okay," David texted back, and finally Sarah noticed something was going on past her shoulder and gave him a sleepy, curious look, while David was thinking: What's it going to be, is he hurt, is someone after him, is someone coming after _us_ ...

It took awhile for Frank's text to come back. "You know that blue screen thing that happens when your computer is fucked up really bad?"

And David said out loud, " _For fuck's sake."_

 

*

 

So he was the Punisher's tech support.

This was okay. This was fine. He owed Frank a _lot._ He could spend a weekend or two trying to help Frank solve the _inevitable results_ of opening _questionable spam email attachments,_ for God's sake it's not 2002 anymore, _Frank._ (At least Frank had beer and got takeout burgers for both of them.)

He was okay with being called down to Curtis Hoyle's veteran's group meeting to try to figure out why Curt's chat-based crisis counseling app wasn't loading. Conflict with his router driver. Totally fine. (This time there were barbecue ribs; Curtis was a better host than Frank, which David did not hesitate to point out.)

Frank's digital camera wasn't talking to his laptop and okay, David was just going to pretend he didn't want to know what kind of pictures Frank was taking with a high-end camera like that or who he was working for right now, but okay, camera and laptop totally working together again, that was fine. Anyway, Frank got halfway decent takeout this time, so that was all right.

And then there was awhile that he didn't hear from Frank at all, until Frank called him late at night from some time zone that was _clearly_ a lot farther west and it was something about his phone not loading an app. Halfway through the conversation, Frank stopped and said with a startled note of sheepish apology, "Uh, did I wake you up?" 

David scruffed a hand through his hair (sitting at the kitchen table in a T-shirt and boxers, with a glass of wine in front of him while he hunted through message boards and chatlogs on the old-school hacker net for the answer to Frank's question, and he laughed and said, "The important thing is, you didn't wake Sarah up." And there was another laugh, a little huff of a chuckle down on the other end of the line. 

He knew it was tenuous. He knew it was an excuse. 

But Frank kept calling, kept texting, from wherever he was. And David got up no matter what time it was to fix Frank's goddamn computer, and he thought they both knew why that was, and the unspoken understanding hung between them that Frank was buying the beer the next time he was in town.

David never actually said "So how's it going?" He knew Frank would tell him when he wanted to, and getting occasional calls from Oregon or Mississippi -- because _like fuck_ he wasn't tracing those IPs; he hadn't told Frank he could tell where Frank's laptop or phone was by which wireless network it was hooked into -- at least let him know Frank was still hanging in there, and he didn't want it to tilt in the direction of Frank not calling him at all.

So he played troubleshooter over the phone with router problems and apps and whatnot, and while they waited for updates to load he talked about Zach's school play and the birdhouse Leo built in her shop class, and Frank told him about a sunset he'd seen and some kind of sport fish he'd caught (like David cared about fishing, but Frank seemed pretty happy about it). David didn't mention it when Frank's voice sounded extra tight, when he wanted to stay on the phone awhile past when they'd actually fixed whatever problem it was, when Frank didn't say much and just seemed content to listen to David talk about Sarah and the kids and his ordinary dumbass problems with his co-workers until the sun came up.

And Frank had a beer wherever the hell he was, and David had one here, and it was ... better, after. He could tell. It wasn't just the computer that needed a little extra TLC, sometimes.


End file.
